Corn Pie

This pie could be confusing to some. Confusing because some people may not consider corn a proper flavor for dessert, but to them I say, why not? Why carrots but not corn?

I once was confused about corn for dessert. But one summer day in Bangkok, I think it was 2004, I spotted the corn pie at McDonald’s and was fascinated. And after tasting it, I was hooked. It was sweet and creamy, corn as dessert made perfect sense!

For my church’s annual Thanksgiving potluck this past Sunday, I thought back to those pies, and I decided to make a big corn pie. In picking out the filling base, I wanted something custard-y, something sweet, so I went with a buttermilk pie base.

It doesn’t happen every time, but it’s great when the recipes I imagine come out as expected. The only thing I would change when making future corn pies would be to make a creamier filling with less flour (or more egg/milk?).

If you’re still looking for pie ideas for Thanksgiving, I highly recommend trying this one out. And when your pie flavor comes into question, you argue that corn is a traditional Thanksgiving food. Not only that, but if we let bacon find its place in sweets, how much more fitting is it to use corn in dessert?

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a medium saucepan on medium heat, melt the butter. Add in frozen corn and sugar and salt; stir until sugar melts and sugar/butter mixture evenly coats corn, about 5 minutes.
3. In a small bowl, beat eggs for about a minute. Pour in buttermilk and vanilla and continue to beat until well mixed.
4. On low heat, pour egg/milk mixture into saucepan with corn/butter, stirring gently and constantly for about two minutes.
5. Turn off heat and fold in baking soda and flour into custard.
6. Pour corn mixture into pre-baked pie shell and bake for about 40 minutes or until top is lightly browned and center is set.